THEN & NOW: Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng arrived with great fanfare at Washington Square Village last year (pictured), but now says NYU planned on removing him almost as soon as he arrived. Photo: AP

Welcome to New York University — now get out.

Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, speaking out for the first time since The Post reported the school was giving him the boot, said pressure from Beijing had school officials planning his departure almost as soon as he arrived.

“As early as last August and September, the Chinese Communists had already begun to apply great, unrelenting pressure on New York University,” Chen said in a statement today.

“So much so that after we had been in the United States just three to four months, NYU was already starting to discuss our departure with us.”

Sources told The Post last week that Chen, whose escape last spring to the US Embassy in China made headlines worldwide, was getting booted from NYU housing in the Village amid pressure from Beijing.

NYU, it was noted, has been seeking assistance to open a campus in Shanghai.

Last week, insiders said NYU told Chen that if he and his wife and kids don’t find a place by July 15, they’d have go to a hotel.

“I’m very grateful to NYU for its help when my family was in a difficult period and for its good support of us when we first arrived in the United States,” Chen said.

Despite his fame, Chen noted, NYU never arranged for him to meet its president, John Sexton.

“We have always wanted to thank the president of NYU in person,” he said. “Therefore, I can only show my gratitude to him in this way.”

Chen vowed to continue his human-rights advocacy.

“Whether it was the dangers I faced in China or the current momentary difficulties we face, I will never bow my head to evil or to lies,” he vowed.

NYU yesterday said it was an “extraordinary host.”

“We are very discouraged to learn of Mister Chen’s statement, which contains a number of speculations about the role of the Chinese government in NYU’s decision-making that are both false and contradicted by the well-established facts,” said spokesman John Beckman.

NYU talked to Chen about departing months ago “not because of some fictional ‘pressure’ from China, but so that they could use the months to make their transition a smooth one,” he said.